Lip Gloss Smile, Scraped Up Knees
by MadiYasha
Summary: road trippin and maybe some kissing


Robbie leaned against the peeling wallpaper and dirt-crusted spaces separating cold tile. He shifted his weight to the other foot, absentmindedly checking his shitty temporary phone for texts he knew wouldn't be there. Fluorescent lights buzzed above him, a cashier of what looked to be Italian descent reclined on a spare seat at the front of the store, and he the teen let himself find distraction in the dull glow of LED beer signs and swirling Slurpee machines.

There was an uncomfortable creak in the silence as the door beside him swung open, and Wendy walked out brandishing her playfully sarcastic grin and always optimistic commentary.

"Dude, I think that toilet seat gave me butt-AIDS."

"The good lord invented hover-peeing for a reason, babe."

She punched him on the shoulder as the two of them exited the gas station. "Man, that's so awkward-sounding, haha."

Robbie said nothing in response, just smiled agreeingly at her. He opened the van door for her in an act of momentary chivalry, and she gave him a look that screamed something about how his gentlemanly act was the cutest bullshit ever and she ate every second of it up because she knew she had him wrapped around her finger.

He revved the engine of a stubborn steed that had been stuck with him for most of this year-all painted up and covered in posters of his scowling face. It clicked into action after a good pause of fiddling with the gas pedal, and the two teenagers took back to the rode.

It was a 6-hour drive on Interstate 5 from Gravity Falls, Oregon to Northern California. Neither of them had any idea of what exactly prompted them to end their summer like this-in a van at 2 am, headed from one nobody town to the next, sleeping on the shag carpet in the back of Robbie's garbage heap until the hot sun sweated them out of their dreams. All they knew was that with their vacation nearing its close and the inevitable doom of another year of school at Ghetto Falls High hanging darkly over their head, the two of them were more than ready to procrastinate all they could on bidding summer goodbye.

There was nothing remotely interesting about the venture. They didn't even have a plan on where to go, let alone the money to make anything of the trip. Wendy had saved a month or so's worth of paychecks (which wasn't much when you were working for Stanford Pines) and Robbie had scraped together what he'd got from a couple shows at the community center and in neighbouring towns. Together it covered gas and food and maybe a little here or there for some leisure, but the two of them would admit that the reason they really left town was for the moments when they were alone at night like this.

Hard rock stations lazily faded in and out as they made their way down the road-a long, straight, boring highway surrounded by nothing but massive fields and farmland-and all that they were receiving now was a kick drum mixed with static. There were constellations blinking in the sky above a wide open road, and it felt incredibly cinematic.

Robbie cast his peripheral vision upon Wendy for a moment, admiring her like he so often did. The way she looked like a trashy painting against his passenger window, scenery speeding by behind her as she gazed out the aperture. Always clad in half-unbuttoned flannel and a tanktop, with blazing red hair that frizzed even after hours of attempting to tame it, permanently adorned with a bored expression that could change into bright enthusiasm at any moment. Her existence was one of the most comforting things he had ever taken note of.

She yawned, and he became increasingly aware that he was starting to feel tired too. He swerved onto the first gravel clearing he could find, hitting the brakes as soon as the car started rumbling roughly along the inconsistent road.

"Bed time?" He asked.

"Mmm..." She thought for a moment. "I dunno, I'm tired, but I kinda want to kill some time out here for a while."

"Like how?"

"Open the back doors."

He stared at her for a moment and gave an affirmative nod, kicking open the door and walking around back. There's usually a certain perfection that hangs in summer air, a comfortably warm solace that was perfect for bonfires and star gazing. Somewhere in the southmost part of Oregon, it was only a few degrees colder than normal, but the two of them took the opportunity to spread a blanket across the grass lining the rocks and enjoy each other's warmth.

"You ever wonder if there really is something bigger out there?"

"Are we gonna start having an existential crisis, Wendy?"

"No man, I totally know it's a fuckin' cliche." She laughed. "It's just like... c'mon, you can't have not opened your mind at least a little after some of the stuff that's happened in our stupid little hick town."

"I guess after being attacked by ghosts and near beaten to death by a video game, a guy could start to question the world, yeah."

"Woah, dude, back up, you never told me about that!" Wendy was leaning into him, eager for a story beneath the stars.

"I promised someone I wouldn't tell you." He looked away despondently.

"C'mon, it's just the two of us. I won't speak a word."

"Alright, promise me?"

"Pinky swear."

"Okay," Robbie started. "So you know how you're like, always camping with your family?"

"More or less," She responded.

"Yeah, so, one of the times you went out, a week or so into us dating, I forgot about it so I went to go find you."

"You're an idiot."

"Pretty much, but I missed you and it kinda slipped my mind. Anyways, I went to the shack to find you, and started playing some pretty hardcore ballads so I could serenade you like a pro. Then Dipshit came out-"

"Robbie!" She elbowed him. "That nickname is not sticking, give it up."

"Fine, fine, Mystery Squirt. He came out to tell me that you weren't there and then made some little comment about how I never listen to you. So I started, um..."

Wendy raised an eyebrow at his sudden hesitance. "Spit it out dude."

"We got into a fight, what it was about really doesn't matter," It wasn't technically a lie. "But he ended up totally trashing my phone, and I got _mad._"

"Dipper did that? No way."

"Totally serious. Why do you think I have this piece of junk?" He held up the temporary flip phone he'd been using. "My grandparents yelled at me for weeks."

"Harsh."

"So I told him I was... I invited him to come fight me."

She sighed. "You guys were fighting? Have I ever told you how much it bugs me when guys do that?"

He was stricken, caught red-handed and trying his best to cover. "I know, I know, and I'm sorry. But this was before you told me how much you hated it, and it was just something that kind of happened in a flash of broken smartphones and jealousy and testosterone."

"I guess I can forgive you. But still, you guys didn't hurt each other... right?"

"No, that's the best part," He continued. "I waited for him at the park like I said I would, and he showed up with-I shit you not-one of the actual dudes from the fighting game at the arcade. Lifesize and everything."

"Bullshit."

"Nope, totally legit," He met her widened eyes with an affirmative smirk. "He had somehow come to the real world. Pixels and all. And then the kid had me beaten to near-death."

"We're talking about the same Dipper Pines, right?"

"I'm serious, Wendy!" He raised his voice an octave. "He may look like a normal 12 year old, but he knows things. He's got that crazy book that he's always burying his face in, I've seen it, it's covered in all this weird crap that supposedly has all been sighted in Gravity Falls."

"And he had a video game character beat the hell out of you."

"Yes! I know how stupid that sounds but it totally happened. Technically Dipper and I didn't fight, I mean, he never touched me and I never hurt him... but we both pretty much ended up getting the shit kicked out of us."

"Kinda serves you losers right for being such babies about it."

Robbie huffed in response, barely content with her argument. "His pixels were sharp."

She just grinned and raised her eyes up to the vast sky above them, memorizing the milky space between each constellation like black ink in a stained tome. "But see? Stuff like that makes me wonder how our town got the brunt of it all. Or is the rest of the world like this, too? I haven't been out in so long..."

"You think that's why we're out here on this anticlimactic trip?"

"Sure. I mean, where are we even going? Who knows what's out here. Maybe we'll be abducted by aliens on our way to a highway diner. Or maybe nothing will happen, but it's nice to find out, you know?"

"You spend too much time around those kids." He smirked.

"Yeah, what's the problem, jackass?" She returned a playful grin.

"Nothing in the slightest, princess."

His silver tongue turned to lead as she practically pushed him over in a rough, bumpy kiss. While Robbie viewed it as conceding defeat, Wendy would have declared it a powerful, precise tactic to quickly shut her boyfriend up. There was a moment of lips breaking apart, teeth hitting each other, and a lot of giggling before she rolled off of Robbie and assumed a position next to him, his painted fingernails intertwined with her calloused hands.

Their laughs drifted off into a comfortable silence, and Wendy took the time to admire how she didn't feel awkward in silences with Robbie. As a driving force of charisma she always made it her duty to fill the silence when people ran out of things to say-so the mood was always light and everyone was happy and comfortable. But there was something about being with the boy next to her that made shutting up very okay, even enjoyable. And so they sat there, unspeaking, staring at the blinking lights above them as they lost themselves and forgot the universe.

When she saw his eyes just barely drooping, she guided his hand up, and they slowly gathered all the blankets back into the back of his van where he'd messily thrown down a mattress over the shag carpet. Robbie yawned, shut the doors, and fell onto the makeshift bed, where his and Wendy's breath intermixed between them and their eyelashes nearly touched. Mere layers separating them, his arms resting along her waist, her fingers gently curled into his back, he placed another kiss on her lips.

She returned it with a lot more passion than he had expected, running her thumb along his jawline and nearly digging her fingers into his hair. Robbie almost immediately forgot how tired he had been, smiled noticeably into the kiss, losing himself when her tongue brushed across his lips and her hair fell across her forehead and he reached a shaking hand up to push it away. The kisses were sloppy and ill-timed and neither of them really knew what they were doing but neither really cared.

There was a certain tension that hung in the air when the two of them worked their ministrations. They'd kissed before, plenty of times, but there was something about the way Wendy kept biting his bottom lip and breathing just a tad more heavier than usual and running her nails across his bare hipbone and moving herself close to him. He started slowly working his hands up across the tiny space where her stomach and hips were exposed, and wondered if it would be out of the question to move her shirt up just a little...

Robbie was about to break apart the kiss to politely ask, but she immediately read his thoughts and placed her hand over his own, moving it straight up her stomach and letting out an apprehensive breath when he just barely rested his hand underneath her breast. His instincts were telling him to explore, but he found it hard to concentrate on what his hands were supposed to be doing and the way his tongue was working against hers and whatever the hell was going on in his pants.

So he haltingly (and quite shakily) motioned his hand up and brushed his thumb over her, and was completely surprised by the wanton moan that escaped her lips as soon as skin touched skin. Her breath caught in her throat and she bucked her hips and the boy found it amazing how the simple action could turn her into a total hot mess. He kept on ghosting his fingers across her, friction building against the two of them as they moved in a synchronized grind of hormones and awkward first-times and chapped lips. He kissed her more roughly now, each bite to his lips setting off a small surge of ecstasy within him, and wondered exactly what her intention was by making him feel so completely crazy and hot and bothered.

For a moment they ceased, eyes fluttering back open, only picking up outlines in the darkness, humid air circling between the space where their flushed lips had been connected seconds before, and Wendy cracked a smile. "Right. Bed."

Robbie looked dismayed beyond belief for a moment, all things considered-but wondered if she'd realized halfway into the affair exactly what they might have been getting themselves into-far away from home, in a van, parked on the side of a highway. He weighed in the pros, cons, and with a frustrated sigh he rasped out an "Alright, yeah."

She cuddled up next to him, her knees just barely bent and long hair messily spilled across the mattress, forehead resting on Robbie's chest, the sound of his beating heart like gentle acoustics in her ear.

"Hey," She whispered after a few minutes of silence. "Know any good bedtime stories?"

He made a nervous attempt to rub her back, eyes still closed as he spoke. "Not even. I could sing to you?"

"Rad. Do it, man."

He opened his mouth, just barely mustering enough breath to sing-the words were not sharp or edgy like the music he so normally partook in. They were soft, gentle, and genuine enough to pass as a lullaby, even coming from someone with a naturally rough voice like Robbie. As he sang, he pushed his fingers through the light tangles in her hair, holding her close like a precious treasure and resting his chin along the top of her head as it moved with each verse.

_"__I moved around from town to town, lots of people around, but still so lonely._

_Friendships would grow, then I'd hit the road-making up excuses for why I had to leave._

_Always been too scared and unprepared to let anybody get too close to me_

_But when I met you right away I knew;_

_ you would never, ever, ever hurt me..."_

Robbie felt Wendy move in closer to him, and she let the butterflies in her stomach pour out in a sigh of what was half bliss and half utter contentment with life. He whistled in between verses, barely making noise through lips that were far too chapped, and kept on singing to her.

_ "__And the road's still long, but you come along_

_and you hold my hand, and you understand.  
When I look at you, I can't believe it's true;_

_you're all I ever dreamed of and you love me."_

Her breathing slowly began to change and he felt her falling asleep in his arms. Her chest was moving steady now, and his shaky hands and breathing synchronized with hers as he felt himself drifting off as well. He opened his eyes just barely and stared at her admiringly, in the dumb cliche way he always did, and contemplated the last three months. Did he ever think she'd stick with him past the first week? No. He thought always that he'd be another boy on her long list of exes. But something about him managed to stick to her, and he was grateful that out of all the first loves he could have been given, he had Wendy.

His breath was barely a whisper as he muttered the last few melodies until he, too, fell into dream. _"And you love me... and you love me..."_


End file.
